1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and method for manufacturing a thin uneven member for use as a fuel cell separator using a pressure mechanism to be driven by, for example, a servo motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A solid molecule type fuel cell has been attracting attention as a small energy source for vehicle or home use. The solid molecule type fuel cell includes, as a main part thereof, a separator which supplies reactant gas to an electrode and collects current. Since a general separator is manufactured by hardening graphite and cutting the hardened graphite, it has a problem that the productivity thereof is poor and thus the manufacturing cost thereof is expensive. In use, since a little less than 1,000 sheets of separators are piled up per vehicle or a little less than 100 sheets of separators are piled up for home use, the fuel cell is very expensive as compared with other cells. Thus, for the spread of the fuel cell, the great productivity enhancement and cost reduction of the separators are needed.
Thus, to meet the need for development of a press-workable metal separator, a metal separator made of stainless-system and titanium-system materials has been developed (for example, see JP-A-2012-28047 and JP-A-2005-63889). If such materials can be molded into a separator by press working, the separator can be manufactured at a cost which is one several decades when compared with the graphite-made separator.
Moreover, JP-A-10-233220 discloses a solid polymer type fuel cell in which both surfaces of a metal thin plate are worked by 1-shot pressing to form groove-shaped flow passages to thereby produce the thin plate as a press plate and mask plates each having an opening in its central portion are attached to both surfaces of the press plate to thereby form a separator.